ON TAPUND has won four of its last five games and closes out a quick homestand with a Wednesday non-conference tilt vs. Mayville State. It will be the final game before the Big Sky Conference schedule starts on Saturday (at Northern Colorado). Wednesday’s tilt will go as an exhibition for the 20th-ranked Comets, who compete at the NAIA level.

QUICK JUMPERS*UND doubled its point output, piling up 88 points in Saturday’s win over NDSU, six days removed from a close 46-44 loss at Minnesota.*Kelsey Knox made her first Division I start in the win over the Bison Saturday.*Travis Brewster is now 2-0 all-time against NDSU.*Megan Lauck suffered an injury in the win at Milwaukee and is out indefinitely.*Josie Dillon returned to the lineup Saturday, playing her first contest of the 2013-14 season.*UND's game at Northern Colorado (Dec. 20) has been moved up an hour and will now start at 2:05 Central.

SCOUTING MAYVILLE STATEMSU is 11-2 on the season in NAIA play ... The Comets will be playing their fifth and final exhibition of the season, two against NCAA Division I teams (UND, NDSU) and three against DII opponents (Minnesota State Moorhead, Northern State, Bemidji State) ... MSU has won six straight contests ... Marcisa McMillan leads the team in scoring (19.3 ppg) and rebounding (10.7 rpg) ... Sabrina Rude has piled up 53 three-pointers in 13 games (53-119, .447).

THE ALL-TIME SERIES WITH THE COMETSNorth Dakota leads the all-time series, 28-0 ... UND has scored 100+ points in seven of those 28 wins ... The teams hooked up in an exhibition game last year with UND winning, 79-58 ... Madi Buck scored 22 to lead North Dakota in that win.

BUCK WILDSenior Madi Buck enjoyed a game for the ages in the win over the Bison Dec. 14. She poured in 37 points and added nine rebounds, three steals, three assists and a block to help UND rally from down seven in the final minutes. Some notes from that win:*Buck was named the Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week.*Her 37 points were tied for seventh-most in UND history.*Those 37 are the most by a Big Sky player this season to date.*It was the most points by a UND player since Becky Moen scored 37 vs. Minnesota Crookston on Dec. 20, 2002.*She racked up 26 of her point total in the second half.*In the final 2:05 of the game (final four UND possessions), Buck tallied eight points, a rebound and a steal.

AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY...UND, since the transition to Division I, only has losing marks on two days of the week: Wednesday (4-7) and Sunday (7-11). This year’s North Dakota squad will look to improve on its 2-2 mark on those dates against Mayville State.

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE CHARITABLENorth Dakota leads the league in free throw percentage at .763 through Monday. Impressive on its own, but even more considering UND is averaging 24.7 free throw attempts per game, most in the conference on average, just edging out Southern Utah (24.3), Northern Colorado (22.9) and Weber State (22.6).

BOARD EDUCATIONNorth Dakota crashes the boards better than its opponents, a +6.4 margin. That rate is second in the Big Sky Conference. UND averages 43.6 rebounds per game (2nd in Big Sky), but also allows just 37.1 (5th best) to its opponent on average.

SZA- NOT-TOO-BLAHFreshman point guard Leah Szabla charted a career-high nine assists in the Dec. 14 win over NDSU. It marked the most assists since Mallory Youngblut’s nine-assist effort on March 4, 2010 against Houston Baptist. The last UND player to reach double figures in that category was Danye Guinn, who dished out 11 dimes in a March 7, 2009 win over Houston Baptist.

TOP OF THE SUMMITUND has gotten the best of the Summit League, winning all four of its contests over the league in the past three seasons. In 2011-12, North Dakota defeated then-Summit member Southern Utah. Last season, UND bested North Dakota State and this year UND has picked up wins over South Dakota and North Dakota State.

MY OH MIASophomore forward Mia Loyd has already tripled her production from last year from distance, making 3-of-10 from three this season. Last year, her only make was in the season finale at Southern Utah, a huge hit that helped UND erase a 21-point deficit to send the game to overtime.

BLOCK WALLSenior Allyssa Wall swatted away five shots in the win over South Dakota, Nov. 17. That tied for a career high, a mark she has hit five times in her four seasons at UND. For her career, Wall has 151 rejections, sixth all-time at the school and just one away from entering the top five.

THREE TO 1,000?Coming into the season, seniors Allyssa Wall (734), Madi Buck (714) and Megan Lauck (692) all have a shot at surpassing the 1,000-point plateau this season and would look to become just the third UND trio of teammates to be in four figures in the same season. (1999 (4)- Jenny Crouse, Jaime Pudenz, Tiffany Pudenz, Katie Richards; 1997 (3)- Kelli Britz, Jenny Crouse, Tiffany Pudenz.)

A BIT ABOUT LAST SEASON (11-18)The University of North Dakota women’s basketball team became the first program at UND to defeat a PAC-12 team with a 62-56 win at Utah on Dec. 29, 2012 ... Madi Buck led North Dakota in scoring (10.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.8 rpg) ... Megan Lauck was second in the Big Sky Conference in free throw shooting (.835) ... UND renewed the rivalry with in-state foe North Dakota State, defeating the Bison in Fargo, N.D., 73-63 on Nov. 30 in the first game in the series since 2004 ... North Dakota scored a season-high 94 points in the season finale double-overtime loss at Southern Utah (Mar. 7) ... Lauck scored 36 points in that game, tied for 10th-most by a UND player in a single game.

RECORD REWINDThe University of North Dakota women’s basketball program holds an 819-330 (.713) record all-time since the first game was played in 1974.

HOME COOKIN’All-time, North Dakota is 448-93 (.827) when it comes to defending its own court. The team played at the UND Fieldhouse/Hyslop Sports Center before moving into its current home at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in 2004-05.

YOU BETTY-CHA!North Dakota is 114-24 (.826) all-time at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, which opened prior to the 2004-05 season.

UND EIGHTH, NINTH IN BIG SKY POLLSEastern Washington was selected as the team to beat in the 2013-14 Big Sky Conference Preseason Women’s Basketball Polls. The Eagles garnered six of the 11 first-place votes in the coaches poll and 20 of 30 top nods in a poll of the media. North Dakota was picked eighth by its fellow coaches and ninth by the media that cover the league.

2013-14 SCHEDULERegional rivalry games highlight the 2013-14 University of North Dakota women’s basketball schedule. Home tilts against North Dakota State and South Dakota coupled with the first of a three-year series against Minnesota precede the second season of Big Sky Conference play for UND.

WATCH BIG SKYCatch all home games and all conference road games live for FREE on the internet, thanks to Big Sky TV. The free video webstream is available by logging onto watchbigsky.com and clicking on the Big Sky TV button.

FOLLOW UND ON MOBILETake North Dakota women’s basketball with you wherever you go with UNDsports.com’s mobile app. . Download it to your computer or your smart phone for free and follow your team wherever they go.

CAN I GET A WIGNESS?UND women’s basketball home games can be heard live on KSNR 100.3 FM or KKXL 1440 AM in Grand Forks. Cat Country is the home for UND basketball-- be sure to tune to 1440AM for all UND basketball home games in conference action with Mitch Wigness providing women’s basketball play-by-play and Paul Ralston handling the home men’s games.